Wednesday, March 17, 2010

More Controversy: 1902 School Changes !

REPORT OF TUE COMMITTEE ON GRAMMAR AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS To the School Committee of the City of Providence

The Committee on Grammar and Primary Schools report a successful year of work in the schools over which they have jurisdiction

One of the most radical changes ever made in our schools was inaugurated at the beginning of the last school year The first steps towards changing the length of the course in the primary and grammar grades from nine to eight years were undertaken in September 1902 when pupils who were to begin the work of the advanced half of the fifth year were placed in the beginning of the sixth year work

In other words the 5 A grade was eliminated and the 5 B pupils entered the 6 B grade This cuts out one half of a year from the nine year course and during the coming year it is expected the other half year will disappear

The necessary steps have been taken to provide for semi annual graduations from the grammar schools so that up to the high schools pupils in all grades will during the coming year be promoted semi annually

This has been the practice for many years in the primary grades and this caused serious congestion in the lower grammar rooms at the beginning of the second term

The change of the course from nine to eight years does away with the loss of a half year to those pupils coming from the primary to the grammar grades in February and who began the advanced half of the eighth year in September and is in line with advanced ideas and progress in public school work

Another step in the reduction of the length of the course has been the raising of the age at which pupils will be admitted to the primary and kindergarten schools from five and four to six and four and one half years respectively

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This tends to bring in focus Lovecraft's graduation ceremonies. If Principal Abbie Hathaway was graduating students every half year, Lovecraft's spontaneous combustion of first refusing to participate and then jumping up and doing a speech at the last moment might not be so unweildy in a system that was scrambling to figure out what the senior educattion adminsitrators were trying to do. SNAFU isn't always just an Army term.